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Ohio State Names Ross Bjork As Athletic Director · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Hello, and welcome to yet another very special live episode of Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning
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for Wednesday, January seventeenth. I'm your host Tom or the Akron game in
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two hundred and twenty seven days, the game against Michigan in three hundred and
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eighteen days. This didn't used to just be a live show every day,
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but boy, it has been an eventful week or two in the Ohio State
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athletics realm, and so we keep having to do these shows when news breaks
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and news just broke. I'm joined by Kevin Newon if buckehadle dot Comark Givler,
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I think is gonna be on the way in just a little bit.
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But Kevin, Ohio State has a new athletics director. The name sort of
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leaked a day or two back. It is Ros Bijork. He is coming
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from immediately from Texas A and M. Previously had been at Ole Miss.
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What can you let people know about Ross Bijork. Well, Ros Bijork is
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one of these names that is, as we welcome Mark into the show,
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that is well known in the ad ing circle, current or most recently at
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Texas A and M. Previously at Ole Miss has had a couple other stops
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is at Western Kentucky as well. You know, I think that I think
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it's a big hire because you've got to remember Texas A and M number seven
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athletic department in terms of revenue out there in the nation. We are now
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in a world in college athletics where you need to have people that know how
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to handle big budgets, big expectations, big boosters. Let's not forget that.
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Charlie Baker, the NCTA president, came out recently with a paper essentially
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on how to move nil in house that could be in place as soon as
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like August. All of these reasons made it paramount for Ohio State, with
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its new president and its board of trustees, to go out and find somebody
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who has done all of this before. And ross By York is one of
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the biggest names out there. I know a lot of people are going to
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say things about the handling of Hugh Freeze at Ole, miss and I'm sure
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we can get into that, but Ohio State swung for the fences and certainly
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landed a big name, and now it will be up for all of us,
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you know, Monday morning quarterbacks to kind of go through and make decisions
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of if it was the right hire or not. And I mean already seeing
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questions in the in the chat about whether he was the one who hired Jimbo
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Fisher at Texas A and M. No, he inherited Jimbo Fisher at Texas
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A and M. He was there when they sort of bumped Jimbo Fisher's contract
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after a big early season, but he was not the guy who initially hired
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Jimbo Fisher there. And Mark, when I sort of was getting some intel
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on Ross by York and who he is, I kept hearing about fundraising,
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and I kept hearing about Nil. And it feels like when you're you know,
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Kevin mentioned a history of having run in a significant size athletic department before,
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and there were certainly other names you heard during this process as guys who
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had direct Ohio state ties, who were ads at other places in the country.
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It feels like if you're going to go away from the Jean Smith tree
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and hire someone who has no previous Ohio state ties, those that fuck those
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fundraising bona fides the NIL type background, it feels like that probably is playing
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a pretty significant role in why this decision got made. Yeah, it definitely
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seems that way at this point. That was my takeaway when his name first
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surfaced, you know, whenever that was a week ago, a few days
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ago. He is used to handling quite a large NIL operation with what they
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have down there. You know, I'm not so interested in the strategy of
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how A and M deployed their NIL. I'm not sure that was always the
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best way of allocating the resources, but that's not a decision he ultimately really
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makes. That's more on the collectives and kind of working with the coaching staff
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down there. So the fact that this guy is serious about NIL, he's
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he understands that you have to have, you know, a pretty good war
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chest these days if you want to stay competitive. I think that's definitely on
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the positive side of things. He's definitely been at a place that, again
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has a huge athletic department, has a huge budget, and has borderline insane
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expectations. So he'll fit right in in Columbus. Yeah, Texas. A
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and M has definitely, I mean, the profile the football program has risen
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significantly over the last decade since their move to the SEC and huge stadium expansion
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in the wake of Johnny Manziel and Geork was not there for all of that,
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but he was there for the latter portion of that, and the size
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and scope of a football program of the you know, in the Big two
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conferences is not going to scare him. The size of the athletic department is
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a little different than what the Texas A and M one is that you know,
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as Kevin said earlier, seventh large budget. I think Ohio State is
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the largest athletic department budget in the country, but it's significantly more sports than
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Texas A and M had Texas A and M, I think had I looked
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at this yesterday. I think what Kevin it was what sixteen sports? Seventeen
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varsity sports in Ohio State. Yeah, and Ohio State is I counted thirty
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five on the website, but I might have missed one because I think the
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number is actually thirty six. But it you know, it's it's a much
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bigger athletic department in terms of the number of sports. So that could be
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a little bit of a different kind of challenge for him. But I guess
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Ohio State being I think the single biggest in terms of the number of sports
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offered. You know, I don't know that you could come from anywhere and
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be entirely prepared to run an athletic department with as many sports as Ohio State
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has. Yeah, exactly, Jean Smith, throughout his tenures certainly made sure
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everybody knows Ohio State has. And that's where I got thirty six. I
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replayed all the times I heard Jean Smith say it, like, I'm pretty
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sure he had thirty six. I'm sure if I would have texted him,
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he would have been like, thirty six. Let me list them off for
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you, because it is a it is a big accomplishment. And Ohio State,
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even during COVID, did not have to cut any sports anything like that
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when there was no money coming in. Really, yeah, Rosbiork is going
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to be drinking from a fire hose in a lot of ways. And this
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is a situation of a guy that has done a lot in his ading career
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in terms of his stops and the programs that he's been involved with and things
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of that nature. And you look at Ohio State and it seems like a
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new a new facility is being built every time we're on athletic campus. I
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mean just recently with the lacrosse stadium. Obviously, you have the Shoemaker center,
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you have Cavelli. I mean, a lot of things have have been
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have have been built under the watch of Geene Smith, even here in the
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last couple of years. And now you bring in rossby Ork, who I
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think is going to be really well regarded when it comes to speaking to boosters
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and speaking to people for or the donations and the grease that really keeps an
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athletic department running, and that grease is called money. And he's got a
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little bit of a time to transition into this job because he doesn't officially take
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over as the athletic director until July first. That's when Jean Smith officially retires,
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so it's a little bit of a transitional period. But this is kind
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of a transitional period for the whole institution because Ted Carter, the new president
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of the university, just took over on January first, So you know,
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Ryan Day as the head football coach is going to have a new boss,
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a new athletic director on July first. He's got a new his boss has
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a new boss just started on January first. And the sports that, you
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know, the college sports world itself is in a little bit of a transitional
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thing right now with when is you know, what is the future of NIL
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going to look like? Because the NCAA has talked about Hey, changes could
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be on the way. This could be much more of an in house thing
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rather than sort of an arm length thing, or at least on paper and
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on length thing. With these collectives, this feels like, I know he
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knows what job he's taking, Mark, but I don't know that anyone in
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college sports really knows what they're signing up for six months out. Yeah,
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and that's gonna be the interesting thing for me. Look, we've talked about
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this on our site for two years now. The next step is going to
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be money flowing directly from the schools to the players. How that looks,
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what the framework of that is. That is all going to be sorted out.
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And I think August sounds tremendous. Is it going to be Are we
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going to get the system we all want in August? I doubt it never
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seems to move that quickly, but so but the amount of money that they
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had raised through ADIL and just everything else. These guys basically have two jobs
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at this point. You're a fundraiser and you occasionally need to hire a and
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if you can, if you can nail both of those things, the rest
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of the stuff will fall into place. And if you if you nail the
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coach part, you don't have to do it very much. So those are
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going to be two things. Here's kind of an elephant in the room that
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I'll be interested to kind of see. He probably won't address it now.
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It's it's it's not the way you would want to start your tenure. It's
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more something that may have to be addressed once we start talking about money flowing
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directly to players, is how is Ohio State at that point going to keep
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thirty six sports? And quite frankly, I think a lot of the timing
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on Jean Smith's retirement is based a little bit on that, just because Jean's
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big legacy at Ohio State is going to be what he did for the non
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rev sports. I mean, that's going to be his big legacy that he
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leaves Ohio State with, and there's gonna be some really tough decisions on that
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front. Once the schools start handling the money and funneling that to the athletes,
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there could be some tough decisions on that part on how how that's balanced.
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Do they have to cut sports, do they have to cut a few
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and I don't think Gene wanted any part of that discussion. So I think
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this is timing up well again from a transitional standpoint of someone who hasn't doesn't
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have this legacy of, you know, doubling Ohio State's number of sports or
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whatever it's been under Gen Smith, and doesn't have to like kind of have
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the questions of, oh do I just start like dismantling my own legacy here.
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So I think there's a lot of interesting things that are going to take
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place six to eight months from now. It feels a little bit like when
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Jim Delaney slid out the side door right before COVID. He didn't know,
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you didn't know he was getting out right? Well the getting was good,
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But oh boyd did he get out right? Well? The getting was good.
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Jean Smith, you know, he has sort of ridden out what has
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already been sort of a tumultuous few years in the college sports realm. I'm
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sure he's not going to be devastated to hand the reins off to someone else,
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to Ross b Yorke and now that we know officially to have to deal
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with all that kind of stuff. But yeah, there is a lot that
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you sort of have to balance now because if you go back, I mean
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Jean Smith's legacy in terms of the non rev sports, boy have they been
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dominant in some of the non rev sports. Men's tennis one of the best
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programs in the nation just built a brand new facility a couple of years ago,
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named for Ty Tucker, the long, long time head coach of that
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program. The women's hockey program won a national championship a year or so back,
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dominant number one again in the country. They are fundraising, they're working
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on building a new rink for that program. But now not only are you
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looking at building, you know, maintaining the sports that you have and potentially
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building new facilities. Now you got the nil piece and the money can only
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go There is a finite amount of money. It is a significant amount of
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money when you're Ohio State, but it is a finite amount of money.
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And so you have the sports you're maintaining and the cost of those, the
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facilities you're maintaining and the cost of those. They're still i think paying off
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some of the renovation work they did at the Horseshoe over the years. There's
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you know what work needs to be done on the Shottenstein Center that's now twenty
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something years old. They need to start looking at, you know, money
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there. They just built a new basketball practice facility there a couple of years
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ago. They have done a ton of capital work there. But now you're
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dividing that pie potentially another little way that just Kevin feels like this is going
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to be you as the new athletic director, are going to get pulled in
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a lot of different directions because everyone is going to have their own view of
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what's the most important thing and what do you have to do, and those
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views are not all going to align. Right, You're right and saying there's
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a finite amount of money, I mean obviously, oh well we'll just ask
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for a little bit more doesn't mean you're going to get a little bit more.
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And you're trying to sit there and feed the mouths at the at the
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top of the at the top of the chain with football and basketball both you
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know, men's and women's and where things may go there, and you do
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wonder what's going to happen to some of the Olympic sports. I mean,
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I finally trained myself not to say, non, rev, Oh that's offensive.
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No, it's it's it's Olympic sports, even if it's not an even
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if it's not featured in the Olympics. That is what we have to say
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for the sports that do not pay for themselves in terms of revenue, that
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are revenue negative, if you will. So ros Byorke is going to come
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in and have to make a lot of decisions there. Ross By Orke is
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going to have I mean, ross Biorke's going to walk in with all sorts
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of decisions coming in, and I think that coaches are going to feel some
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pressures. I mean whether or not we're talking about Olympic sports or we're even
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talking about guys at the top, because ross Bijorke was not the ad that
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hired Chris Holtman or Kevin McGuff or Ryan Day Ted Carter was not the president
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involved in it the hiring of any of these guys. So I think there's
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going to be an immense amount of pressure felt by everybody because the whole leadership
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structure has changed just with the wave of a wand at this point, so
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it's a real interesting time to try and figure out what the Ohio State Athletic
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Department is going to look like in two years or five years or ten years.
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And I don't think any of us really have a good idea. I
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don't think that Ross b Yorke has an idea. I don't think that outgoing
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ad Jean Smith knows what it's going to look like in ten years, because
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you know where what where we're sitting just now at football. If you would
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have told me this is where we were going to be five years ago,
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I would have said, you're crazy. So you know, change is the
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only thing that we can count upon, and you know, what's what's next
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for college football and for college sports on the whole is less, Kevin said,
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sort of an open question at this point, because you've had the NCAA
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president sort of floating the idea of you know, maybe your your school's paying
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players directly and there's going to be what was it, thirty thousand dollars a
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year for a certain number of players of athletes, and you got to pay
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all of your athletes, and you know that could let end up with a
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split of fbs into the haves and have nots even more than it already.
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Is that could be coming? Is that coming in two years? Is that
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coming in five years? Is that coming in ten years. We don't know.
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They don't know either. This is all just sort of a little bit
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of a work in progress. You mentioned some of the immediate decisions that ross
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Byorke may have to make when he gets to Columbus. The future of the
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Ohio State basketball program is certainly one that's at least a little bit up in
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the air right now. Several folks in the comments would like ross Byorke to
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closely examine the future of the Ohio State men's basketball program. Chris Holtmant with
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four years left on his deal, three point five million dollars per year after
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this year, and you know, Mark, I know this is one of
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those things where it feels like they're sort of lost in the wilderness at this
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point, where it's a little bit groundhog Day, where you get to January
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and then the wheels fall off the wagon. And I think that's part of
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the conversation. But another part of the conversation is the conversation about that we
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had earlier about there is a finitemut of money, and just because you're mad
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about Ohio State basketball right now does not mean that next November you will still
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be if Ohio State is trailing Michigan in the third quarter. Are you going
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to be okay with, well, they didn't bring in X player or bring
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back X player because of nil? Are you going to be okay with that
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because you've got a change in the basketball program, or you know, there
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is a finite amount of money here and you know the donor money can either
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go to the collectives or whatever, you know, whatever is funding NIL at
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that point, or they can go to coach buyouts, or they can go
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to new facilities. Are you going to be happy that they built a new
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facility for the fill in the blank team or fired the coach of the fill
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in the blank team. If that is meaning that, hey, they can't
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bring back three football players next year, That's that's the kind of decisions that
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people, I think are going to be having to be forced to face now.
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Yeah, and I know the Ohio State fans answer to that is football,
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football, football, But I think also gonna want to kind of have
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their cake and eat it too on that if the basketball program continues to trend
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in the direction it's trending right now. So that's gonna be a big challenge.
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I actually think if you're Chris Holtman, This may be somewhat helpful to
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you that they've done this now, because the most realistic thing, most realistic
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outcome right now is that York's gonna let this season play out and probably get
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to take a fresh pair of eyes on the situation, which may buy Holtman
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some time. Whereas if this had continued, you know, down the road
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and Gene is locked in long term, who knows, maybe that's maybe that's
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a shorter leash for Holtman. So we'll see. Uh, it's gonna it's
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gonna be interesting. I think the Ohio State this isn't the Ohio Basketball Show
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necessarily, but there's a lot of there's a lot of issues with the program
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right now. You can talk about coaching, you can talk about you know,
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the struggles final minutes and are you recruiting the right mentality in terms of
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recruits. You're recruiting highly ranked guys. Are you recruiting enough toughness? Is
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your building? Does your building need to be brought to the ground and rebuild
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it half the size? I mean, there's a lot of there's a lot
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of things we can get into on that, but there's no doubt, you
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know, a fresh pair of eyes is gonna make things a little bit unpredictable.
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But at the end of the day, I don't think they'll allow this
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to continue too long. And I do think if this continues to slip,
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we continue to see this every winter and this doesn't get turned around this year,
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I think York has a chance to kind of send a message to whoever
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it might be in the athletic department and the fan base of course, but
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you know other coaches who are perceived to be underperforming, like hey, new
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sheriff in town. You know, I'm bringing in my people if you guys
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aren't gonna win well. And that's one of those things that you typically will
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see with a leadership turnover. And remember new university president and new athletic directory
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typically guys when they come in want to leave their mark on the program and
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want to bring in their own people and have their own vision for what the
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program should be and what expectations should be and what the areas of focus should
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be. And that can lead to a little bit of uncertainty for guys who
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you know, maybe it makes the is this a coaching change that needs to
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be made, Maybe that pushes a few of those over the edge. And
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there are coaches at Ohio State who I think are absolutely I think Nadine Musol
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can coach the women's hockey team as long as she wants to, because boy
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oh boy, I don't think there's a better coach in America in maybe any
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sport than she is, considering where that program was when she came in.
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But I think that you know, you've got Kevin McGough is doing a very
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good job with the women's basketball program. I don't think there's any concern there.
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I think there are other programs where sometimes you want to come in and
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make a change and you're just sort of looking for an excuse to make a
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change. So this feels like you could have some turnover. But you know,
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if you want to if you want to build a new basketball arena,
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well, paying a bunch of coaching buyouts, well that's a good way to
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spend a bunch of money that you then don't have to spend on the basketball
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arena. So this just feels, Kevin like a really interesting time. And
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if you're if you are coming in as ross Byork, I kind of am
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on mark side here. You come in and you maybe sort of take stock
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of stuff and you don't just walk in the first day and just you know,
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point at him and say you're fired. You're not, you know,
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Vince McMahon, this you maybe take some time and take stock of the situation
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and make sure you really understand the lay of land before you start making big
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changes. I don't know what which year Ohio State hired its first AD.
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I don't think, like in eighteen seventy it had an AD. But this
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is only Ohio State's ninth athletic director. Jean Smith was the third longest tenured
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AD in program in program history, which means and he was here what eighteen
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something like that. I mean, he was here a long long time.
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So we have gone through a lot of university president changes. I mean,
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doctor Christina Johnson was at Ohio State for a hiccup, it feels like,
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but we've not gone through a lot of AD changes. In fact, I
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know, you know, Jean Smith, Andy Geiger, and then there were
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you know, and then his predecessor I think was there right at the right
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at the beginning of my collegiate career, maybe even a little bit before that.
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We we don't see a lot of AD changes, so we don't have
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in terms of Ohio State a ton of precedent. Now, we do see
21:38
a lot of musical chairs out there for other programs changing ads like it changes
21:44
its socks. But we you know, we don't have the playbook, per
21:48
se for Ohio State of how it's going to how it's going to handle that.
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And I think that's what makes us so intriguing. And the other thing
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too, And I'll talk about the hub board over at bucke huddle dot com,
22:00
a place that everybody should be a member of. Why the hell aren't
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you already? Is people have really taken to you know, thumbs up or
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thumbs down, even before the hire was officially made. When Pete Thammel of
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ESPN dot com came out and said this is the way it looks like it's
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going, and I was like, you know, I understand people making these
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type of comments about coaches, but making it about the ad. Wow,
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we're you know, this is this is some three D chess. And let
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me just run you through the list of Ohio State Athletic directors. Colin Gay
22:33
of The Dispatch put a list together. Thank you, Colin. A lot
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of familiar names on here. If you were familiar with buildings on campus at
22:41
Ohio State or former buildings on campus at Ohio State. Lynn Saint John,
22:45
the first athletic director at Ohio State nineteen twelve to nineteen forty seven. How's
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that for a tenure? And then you get your name on the basketball arena
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and then everyone calls you Saint John's not quite Lynn Saint John. And then
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Richard Larkins former that you used to be the Larkins Hall. It used to
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be where the pool was at Ohio State before the Goult the new r PAK
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Yeah, nineteen forty seven to nineteen seventy so, nineteen twelve to nineteen seventy
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two athletic directors at Ohio State. It was the graveyard of coaches. It
23:14
was the exact opposite of that. In terms of athletic directors. Edward Weaver
23:18
nineteen seventy to nineteen seventy seven, Hugh Hindman nineteen seventy seven to nineteen eighty
23:22
four, Richard Bay nineteen eighty four to nineteen eighty seven. He resigned.
23:26
You may remember him. He was the run who resigned when Ed Jennings fired
23:32
Earl Bruce Jim Jones, not the guy from Guiana, the athletic director nineteen
23:36
eighty seven to nineteen ninety four, Andy Geiger nineteen ninety four to two thousand
23:40
and five, and then Jean Smith since two thousand and five. So I
23:45
mean, incredible stability there in that position. But I think that's also maybe
23:49
mark a reflection of this is kind of the top of the food chain.
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Once you get there, there's nowhere else to go unless you want to.
23:56
I mean, you want to go be the commissioner of the Big Ten,
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you could do that or you know, there was for a long time speculation
24:03
that Jean Smith might go be the commissioner of whatever replaced the NCAA. Jean
24:07
Smith was asked in a press conference about that if he had any interest in
24:11
that, and he looked over at his wife, Sheila, who was sitting
24:14
in the corner of the room, and she said, and I quote,
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hell no, so Jean Smith, that is not Jean Smith's future. But
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it does feel like that's sort of this is sort of the pinnacle of athletic
24:23
administration, at least in terms of college in the US, and that's maybe
24:29
part of why there's so much stability there. Yeah, it's not that much
24:33
unlike the head football coaching position. You either you either get fired, which
24:38
is even tougher to do as an AD than a coach, or you you
24:42
know, you retire or you you know, and there's not much else to
24:47
do once you once you've reached that level. So, you know, I
24:51
think we've had what forehead football coaches since like nineteen eighty eight, So the
24:57
AD I think what same or very close to it. So it's it's a
25:03
it's not a you know, stepping stone job by any stretch of the imagination.
25:07
Your your next step from from Ohio athletic director or Ohio had football coaches
25:12
is likely either is likely like the NFL, or being in some type of
25:15
you know, front office role in the NFL. It's not a or a
25:19
commissioner type of role. It's not a jumping for another AD job. So
25:25
you hire these guys with the intention of them being here for more than a
25:27
decade. And so these guy even more so than the coaches, these guys
25:33
can really kind of put their imprint on the athletic department. Uh, by
25:37
the time he leaves, I'm sure he'll have made numerous coaching hires that will
25:41
impact the trajectory of this athletic department. So you know, these these are
25:45
important decisions. When you talk about, you know, your athletic director,
25:49
it's it's a very very important decision, and you have to be mindful of
25:56
the changing landscape of college athletics. You know, you're you're probably not going
26:00
to hire the same type of person today that you hired even when you hired
26:04
Gene Smith, certainly when you hired Andy Geiger. So they've clearly made it
26:11
a fundraising nil focus here, and you know that's fine. I think that's
26:18
probably the way to go. And now we have to see, Okay,
26:22
how does he handle his staff, because again, fundraising one one A and
26:27
one B is coaching decisions. So uh, and he's got he's got some
26:32
big ones to make. He'll need to obviously decide on basketball here pretty soon.
26:36
And quite frankly, I mean we're gonna be having a conversation in any
26:38
or two on Ryan Day, good good or bad, you know, So
26:41
that'll be another thing to watch as well. Well. It's interesting that it
26:45
feels like this is a reflection of how the athletic department or athletic director job
26:51
has changed, and you sort of have that same conversation when you look at
26:55
who the conference commissioners are, and it went from you know, who was
26:59
the a d at one of the schools in that league, and the former
27:03
Northwestern ady Jim Phillips just you know, took the ACC job. But then
27:08
you had Kevin Warren, who is more of an attorney background, take the
27:14
Big ten job, and then you had Tony Pettiti take the Big ten job
27:17
and a little bit more of an entertainment and TV broadcast kind of background.
27:22
The responsibilities of the position are changing, so the type of person you're looking
27:26
for is kind of changing. We have a bunch of interesting questions, some
27:30
of them are a little less on topic, so before we completely wrap things
27:33
up, and we'll get to some of those questions in a minute before we
27:37
kind of wrap things up on the ross By York thing. I know,
27:40
Kevin, you have a little bit of a family tied to Ole Miss,
27:42
so you have maybe a little more insight into ros Byork's time at ole Miss,
27:45
because I think there's there's been a lot of people who've looked at this
27:48
and gone Jimbo Fisher, you know, Strike one and Hugh Freeze at Ole
27:53
Miss Strike two. You I think maybe have a little bit of a different
27:57
perspective on this than other folks. So just you know, you share a
28:00
little bit about your your thoughts and and what you know about those situations,
28:04
because I think that is you know that that's part of this conversation in terms
28:07
of who Ohio State's hiring right. And uh, my wife graduated, she
28:12
got her her bachelor's from ole Miss, so that means I get to watch
28:18
more ole Miss than I ever really anticipated. And we don't get to watch
28:22
a lot of games together because of the job, and when ole Miss is
28:26
playing, generally Ohio State's playing, or at least on the same days.
28:29
But I certainly watched the York and there was the you know, the consideration
28:33
of how the whole Hugh Freeze Dalliance's scandal went and and b York probably could
28:41
have handled it a little bit better. But we're also talking about something a
28:45
long time ago. And I know early in my in my professional career,
28:49
there were certainly when I was sitting at the h in the control room producing
28:55
live television, there are things that I probably would like to have over again,
28:57
And you know, I don't know what his view is going to be
29:00
of that. And then we go to A and M. And he was
29:03
not the guy who hired Jimba Fisher, but he did give that extension.
29:07
But ask Mill Tucker, what happens when a thirsty program gets a little taste
29:11
of success and then everybody's worried that their coach is going to go away.
29:17
You offer them an extension, a giant extension with all sorts of zeros on
29:21
it and very little assurances for the school. That's just what happens. And
29:26
we know that you pass the hat around to your rich donors and that's where
29:30
that money comes from. It's not taking food out of the dining halls.
29:33
No, your son or daughter is not going to starve in college because an
29:36
ad rushed into an extension because that's what market forces said needed to happen.
29:41
You know, I think that I think in my observations of B York through
29:45
these couple of stops, I think that I think it's a good move.
29:48
And I talked to a couple of people who cover A and M, and
29:52
they generally had positive things to say about B. York too, and that
29:56
he's a he's a tremendous speaker, and he's tremendous at raising money, and
30:00
that that people will you know, will generally like him, and you know
30:04
that there's still maybe some people around A and M that are salty toward Jimbo
30:08
and have you know, put a little bit of that in in the orc's
30:11
hat. But I think anybody who really knows what's going on understands that he
30:18
was he was he inherited Jimbo, and he made the move that pretty much
30:22
anybody else is going to do. You're going to split aces and eights,
30:26
and he had to give he had to give Jimbo an extension at that time
30:30
because that's what market forces really said needed to be done. The college sports
30:37
coaching market, especially the high level college football coaching market, is one of
30:41
those sort of inherently just insane markets where you can either spend a ludicrous amount
30:48
of money and deal with the fact that the industry standard is a guaranteed buyout
30:55
of basically one hundred percent we're close to it of the remaining amount of your
30:57
contract, and the amount of money that's gonna thrown around on high level coaches
31:00
is ludicrous, and I think the numbers on those might change a little bit.
31:04
I mean, this is some of the same conversation that we're having in
31:07
terms of, well, you've got to make a facilities decision versus a cutting
31:11
sports decision versus a you know, the money only goes so far and there's
31:15
only so much of it, and that may potentially change what the college coaching
31:22
market looks like financially as well. So that'll all be stuff that Ross Biorke
31:26
has to deal with when he takes over the Ohio State position. We've got
31:29
a couple questions I wanted to get through real quickly. Jimmy wants to know
31:33
will b Yorke be starting before July first or is he going to wait till
31:36
Smith is fully out of the role, And the announcement from Ohio State said
31:41
he will begin his tenure as athletics director at Ohio State on July first,
31:45
twenty twenty four, So you know, maybe he'll come and hang out in
31:49
Columbus a little bit and shadow Jean Smith a little. But July first is
31:55
one of those times when that's typically a pretty quiet time in the college sports
32:00
world as the you know, you have the spring sports are done in about
32:06
May you get you know, college World Series and stuff will drift into June.
32:09
But July is typically one of the quietest months. That's one of the
32:13
months where college football coaches will take a vacation because they can get away for
32:15
a few weeks. So that's that's one of the reasons. It's also the
32:19
start of the fiscal year for a lot of folks, so that's why that
32:22
would be a time that that decision gets that transition gets made. Adam Baker
32:29
wants to know, Well, the new ad cut some of our thirty six
32:30
sports hope not. I mean, we talked about that earlier, Kevin,
32:34
but this feels like with as much uncertainty as there is on so many fronts,
32:39
and you know, what is the athletic what is the monetary model going
32:44
to look like? It feels like that's maybe more on the table potentially in
32:50
the next five to ten years than it would have been the last five to
32:53
ten years. Yeah, I mean, I just it's going to be more
33:00
difficult. And the thing is, we talked about cutting sports. Let's not
33:04
forget about Title nine and everything that Title nine means. What is Title nine
33:08
going to factor into WITHINIL And if there's direct payments from the university, I
33:14
mean, are we talking do they attempt to go dollar for dollar? There's
33:19
no way that you can do that. But I mean, you know,
33:21
in terms of what the moneys are going to be. But I don't know,
33:24
Adam. I wish I had a better answer for you. I the
33:30
skeptic in me believes that it's going to be really hard come twenty thirty to
33:35
have thirty six athletic program or have thirty six teams in your program. But
33:40
Ohio State has gone to such great links. But granted that is Jeane Smith's
33:44
legacy. Ohio State has gone to such great links to keep that size athletic
33:49
department. Time will tell, and a lot of those programs will have endowed
33:54
scholarships, and the scholarships can be part of, you know, one of
33:57
the big expenses. So if you have an endowed scholarship, and I mean
34:01
pick a team, pistol, team, rowing team, whatever you want to
34:04
pick, if there is or if there are endowed scholarships for that, maybe
34:07
that helps underwrite the cost and you can get you know, is there some
34:10
rich person who really enjoys that sport and wants to sort of help underwrite that
34:15
sport. I always think of Bill Davis, who was a big supporter of
34:20
Ohio State baseball, and Bill Davis Stadium is named after him. And if
34:24
you have someone who is you know, has the money to help kind of
34:28
underwrite that stuff, maybe that makes keeping whatever sport you want to talk about
34:32
viable longer, makes that it makes that a real possibility when otherwise it might
34:37
not be. We do have a super chat from David Greenshield. Did Cooper
34:39
have dirt on Geiger and Jones? We got trusts for ten years, Mayer
34:43
for seven and Cooper for thirteen. I think Mark this is someone who doesn't
34:47
remember exactly how close John Cooper kept got to get getting getting fired, Like
34:53
nineteen ninety two, the famous E. Gordon gee. The tie is one
34:58
of the best wins in history because they didn't have to fire him, and
35:01
then you know, once once you got through that, they they were pretty
35:06
solid through the mid nineties, won some big ten championships. The bar back
35:12
then was not where the bar is now, and so an eleven and two
35:15
season that felt like a disaster. This year in nineteen ninety five, that
35:20
was a pretty good season. Yeah. I think one one thing that plays
35:25
a big role into a coach's longevity is is how well the guy before him
35:30
did and what he's inheriting and why he's taking over. Is he taking over
35:35
because the last guy got fired? Or is he taken over because the last
35:37
guy just didn't want to coach anymore? Is leaving him, you know,
35:39
a top program kind of like a Urban left day And you know, unfortunately
35:45
it wasn't Trussel's choice to retire, but Tressell left, you know, Urban
35:49
a program that was in better shape than what he had found it in.
35:52
So Earl Bruce did not leave Ohigi in better shape than what Woody Hayes left
35:57
it in, and I think that bought him maybe some extra time. We're
36:00
also we're also in a different landscape now. Back then you got three or
36:06
four years almost no matter what you got, you got your first you know,
36:09
four year cycle. And so that's not the case anymore. But it's
36:15
kind of a different sign of the times as well. But yeah, I
36:17
just think, you know, if you look at what even Tressell inherited,
36:22
I think I think every coach, including John Cooper, I think every coach
36:25
in the last you know, thirty five whatever it is, last four coaches
36:30
all less or the previous three. I guess we're not counting Ryan Day,
36:34
but those three coaches, I think all left Ohio State in better shape than
36:37
than where they found it. And so I think that's really the biggest thing
36:43
and why Cooper was able to kind of last a little bit longer and just
36:45
seem to have the right good year at the right time. Yeah, Tressell
36:51
left. I mean, you know, I'm not here to bring down the
36:53
tone of the show, but tresl had some controversy hanging around him. Meyer
36:59
had controversy hanging around him. And whereas Meyer kind of decided, Okay,
37:04
I'm going to up and say this Rose Bowl against Washington is my my last
37:08
game, he was not without his own you know, controversy that was going
37:14
on and the suspension he served and everything else. I mean, the controversy
37:17
around Cooper was he couldn't beat Michigan, he couldn't beat the SEC in a
37:21
bowl game. Hell, he couldn't beat Illinois. That I mean Cooper left
37:27
really because his you know, his the clock ran out on him. It
37:30
just they could not get over the hump. And that was that was that.
37:34
That's why he he left, and they brought they bring in Jim Tressell.
37:37
I mean, if Jim Trestle does not have that whole top five situation.
37:40
How much longer does he coach? I'll tell you one thing that probably
37:44
doesn't happen. Urban Meyer pribade never ends up at Ohio State because it changes,
37:49
it changes timelines, and where things intersect, the timing probably never matches
37:54
up. So you know, I I'm taking a much more serious and philosophical
37:59
look at this and probably what David Greenshield intended with his super chat. And
38:02
we thank you for the super chat. But you know, as I was
38:05
sitting here listening to Mark talk, that's kind of where my mind wandered to.
38:09
All right, and because we have Mark on the show, we have
38:10
a bunch of recruiting questions and transfer portal questions. So let's hit a couple
38:15
real quick, Mark, what's the latest on Caleb Downs? The latest is
38:21
there is the latest. He's not in the transfer portal unless he's entered in
38:25
the last few minutes. While I haven't been paying attention. I think the
38:31
the longer this goes, I think the worse this gets for Ohio State in
38:36
terms of entering the portal. I think if you're getting an emotional decision of
38:43
you know, oh, I'm so angry that Nick Saban's gone, and what
38:45
am I gonna do? And you'd like him to get in the portal,
38:50
you know, immediately, and that hasn't happened. I think the longer this
38:52
drags, obviously, the worst it gets for Ohio State. I I don't
38:57
love where things are trending right now, but we'll see portals are odd.
39:01
He could, you know, have an epiphany tomorrow and be like, nope,
39:04
I'm out so but right now I don't. I don't like the tone.
39:07
I think we probably should have heard something by now more definitive than oh,
39:13
yeah he's thinking about it. Yeah that Daz Ricks. It took him
39:16
and Tom's muteed. It took das Ris like from the time that the story
39:21
started to come out to when he ended up in the portal, it took
39:23
four or five days. I just saw another corner from Alabama just go into
39:28
the portal. I think today everybody's going to operate on their own, on
39:31
their own timeline. I know everybody got very excited about the potential of Caleb
39:37
Downs ending up at Ohio State, and you take him eleven out of ten
39:40
times, there's no doubt whatsoever you make that happen. But I will say
39:45
this, and this is oh Kevin's just foaming the runway. Kevin's just covering
39:49
his ass here. But this one's a luxury get. This one is a
39:52
luxury get. It absolutely makes Ohio State better, absolutely makes Ohio State better,
39:57
but it is a luxury get. But I also I really like molle
40:00
cart for two. I like the Kevin is foaming the runway. That could
40:06
go so many different directions. I'm glad, I'm glad we're talking about firefighting.
40:09
I think our cases saw a picture of Corey Dennis on the road with
40:13
Heartline and Bailey today. Does that mean he's going to stay on the staff.
40:15
I don't know that anyone on the offensive staff is one hundred percent locked
40:21
in for twenty twenty four other than Brian Hartline. You know that football Scoop
40:24
report that came out a week and a half ago said when they bring in
40:29
a new offensive coordinator, the new offensive coordinator will have the opportunity to make
40:32
changes as he sees fit on the offensive side of the ball. Well,
40:37
they don't have a new offensive coordinator yet, so I think that's you know,
40:40
the staff is what the staff is right now. James Laurnidis is on
40:44
the road right now because they only have nine full time assistants, so James
40:46
Loonidis can be the tenth. That does not mean that James Loonidis is one
40:51
hundred percent guaranteed to be one of those ten accountable coaches next year. That
40:53
just means that's what it is right now. So I don't think I would
40:57
make any long term decisions based on that. Mika Henna says, I want
41:02
to hear Mathis one Merit, Justin Hill, Cedric Works, and Brendan Caesar,
41:07
along with a couple of big dts in twenty twenty five. Mark is
41:10
Mika g going to be happy with the twenty twenty five Ohio State defensive line
41:14
recruiting class. Yeah, I think that's a good list. You know,
41:19
obviously Mathis has committed. I think they're going to get Hill. I certainly
41:22
think they'll get Caesar, you know, as long as there's a spot for
41:27
him, and I tend to think he might grow into a tackle. I'm
41:30
not sure if he'll stay on the edge or not, so that'll be kind
41:32
of an interesting one to watch. And they're they're in great shape with London
41:36
Merit. They've had him up. Feels like eight times by now, but
41:39
I mean really, I think it's been four or five. He's been up
41:42
to Ohio State, and so I think they're in good shape there. They
41:45
haven't offered Cedric Works, but that's one I think if they jump in the
41:49
mix here in the next couple months. And with his he's got a good
41:52
friendship with Dorian Brew who used to be at Clayton Northmont as well, So
41:57
I think that certainly you would expect them to be able to land him if
42:00
they offer him. So it's setting up nicely this year because they're not having
42:07
to like go find like three kids from Florida or Texas or Georgia, like
42:12
they've got Mathis as a PA kid. They've done an amazing job in PA
42:15
over the years, especially in the Philadelphia area. You've got a guy like
42:20
Hill in state. You've got Caesar in state, You've got Works in state.
42:23
There's some guys in Illinois. They're recruiting like this. This doesn't seem
42:29
like we got to go get the five star from California and the five star
42:31
from Texas and the five star from Georgia and hope we can can get all
42:35
of them in nil and geography and everything else. This feels like a good
42:39
setup to go get six guys that you like and that aren't gonna have maybe
42:45
as much drama as the last couple of years, but we'll see, all
42:50
right. And speaking of maybe not as much drama as we've seen in the
42:52
past, Mark, is Dominic kirk going to be a buck eye? Yeah?
42:58
I do believe so. And again, as I've kind of talked about
43:01
before, I think there's two things right now. Obviously, USC is not
43:06
giving up and they're hoping to get him out there before things go down to
43:10
back to the dead period or whatever before they got a sign it here in
43:15
February. But us he is still trying. And then we haven't seen and
43:20
this is the thing I wasn't sure about we haven't really seen much there yet.
43:22
Is what does Kaylen to board Alabama mean? Kylen Bore obviously took Dominic
43:28
Kirks's commitment at Washington. You know, Bama's putting a staff together. They're
43:31
trying to figure that stuff out. You know, do they try and make
43:35
a late push, but it just it just feels like the home state school
43:39
is going to be able to get this one done. All right. Let's
43:44
give how about one for Kevin here comment is the if if bruss Bjork is
43:50
an NIL and donation guy, then I'm happy we got the best guy.
43:52
Is does is that what makes an athletic director the best guy? Right now?
43:57
Is that the main focus for an athletic director in twenty twenty four,
44:01
I think, I think so though, you better be able to run your
44:07
program and make sure that you know what's going on with each program. I
44:12
was chastised on the Huddle message board for not understanding leadership one on one and
44:16
that the AD is responsible for every little, single action. So if that
44:21
poster's on here, we can continue to fight over that one. But you
44:24
need to know what's happening with all of that. But you've got to bring
44:28
in the money. You got to bring in the money. That is the
44:30
grease that keeps the wheels moving at this point. And I still truly believe
44:35
that if we get to the point that Charlie Baker was talking about and NIL
44:38
comes in house, you need to have somebody who understands that aspect. I
44:45
think you might see, I think you might even see some programs start to
44:50
go a little bit outside of the AD world, and you know, maybe
44:53
do you maybe do you split the role in some ways? I don't.
44:58
I don't know. I mean we've also seeing conferences go a little bit against
45:01
the norm and in terms of hiring their commissioners, and it's not been one
45:07
hundred percent working there. I mean Larry Scott would be the first example of
45:12
that from the from the largely defunct PAC twelve. But to to media Shed's
45:19
point, I think that this is a really good hire. It may take
45:22
some people a little bit longer to get to that point than others, and
45:27
that's fine. But the first time that Ross by York screws up, well
45:30
all will all chime in Unison we got the wrong guy. Yeah, and
45:37
you're never going to get one hundred percent of stuff right. And Jean Smith,
45:38
I think has broadly been a had a very very successful tenure. But
45:43
there's certainly stuff you can point to in his tenure that you'd maybe do a
45:46
different way if you had it to do all over again. So, yeah,
45:50
you're you're never going to beat a thousand, but you could if you're
45:52
betting average is high enough, you could. You can be pretty successful at
45:54
Ohio State. We have a few in a row, just some hopefully quickies
45:59
for Mark, and then I want to end on a question about an entirely
46:04
different Big Ten team for Mickey Hannah Mark. Does Ohio State offer Quintin Simmons?
46:08
I hope so, I would, you know, I'm not sure.
46:15
He's one of about five class of twenty twenty five receivers that from Ohio that
46:21
Brian Hartline's evaluating right now. What I think is going to happen here,
46:25
And yes, they're going to continue to go after you know, five star
46:30
Jamie French from Florida. There's other guy. You know, they're gonna recruit
46:32
Texas in California. They're gonna do all that. But it's it's a deep
46:37
year in Ohio for receivers, and I think ultimately it's going to make sense
46:42
to grab one from Ohio and heartlines I think in the process right now figuring
46:47
out, Okay, is it Quinton Simmons, is it Jackson Wiley? Is
46:52
it Preston Bowman from Pickerington North. I mean there's in Bowman will be on
46:55
campus this weekend. So I think that's the the hold up right now is
47:00
like I think they know, like, hey, we can't take like three
47:02
of these guys. We probably can't even take two of these guys, but
47:06
we really should take one of these guys, especially with the portal and the
47:09
Ohio guys tend to stick a little longer, they have a little more patience.
47:15
So that's where I think things are at right now. I personally love
47:19
Quentin Simmons, just electric speed. It wouldn't it be nice to have a
47:22
wouldn't it be nice to have a scary kick returner again? I mean,
47:24
it feel like it's been like twenty years. Is that legal? I thought
47:29
I thought that was against the rules. Is that not a thing? Is
47:30
that? Is that thing you can still do? I had no idea.
47:34
Uh, Mellow number seven says, what's up, mister Gibler? So high
47:36
state Land Mason short? Yeah, I'm gonna I think I've been fairly positive
47:42
with my answers so far. I'm I'm going to need to see that to
47:45
believe it. I think geography is going to be a huge factor there.
47:47
I think Georgia is in the driver's seat now. But you know, I
47:53
had I'll try and protect the identities here, but we saw Mason down the
48:01
Atlanta under Armour camp last year. Last year around this time, so we'll
48:07
be back at that event. I guess next month. Yes, I had
48:14
a chance kind of talk to someone who had had a lot of influence over
48:17
Mason's decision, and I was just at the time he was uncommitted, and
48:21
you know, they think they were they were hoping to get him back for
48:22
the spring game. I think he had even mentioned something about returning to Ohio
48:24
State for the spring game last year. And I said, hey, guys,
48:28
coming back to the spring game and they said, oh, gosh,
48:30
no, that's that's just it's just too far. I'm like, oh,
48:31
okay, Well that kind of alerted me, like I think people were hoping
48:37
they would get him the first time around, like, hey, he's not
48:37
going to Ohio State. I mean if if they're just if it's like if
48:40
getting up to the spring game is like a total bulk like distance geography,
48:45
Oh it's just way too far to go. I don't know that. I
48:47
don't think Columbus has I haven't followed like tectonic plate movement lately, but I
48:52
don't think that Columbus has has moved a whole lot closer to to Georgia,
48:58
to Augusta, Georgia or as he's an Evans right, technically it's it's all
49:01
it's all Augusta to me, but but yeah, uh, I would be
49:07
surprised. I would be surprised, all right. And then another one,
49:10
last one for Mark? Why did Juju reclassify? That would be Juju Lewis,
49:15
who is what now a twenty twenty five quarterback? Right? Yeah?
49:19
Yeah, And we had talked about that a lot on the site. And
49:22
I know you're on there, Brian, so I don't I don't know if
49:24
if you had seen anything of our discussion before. We had talked about kind
49:28
of a while back that this was probably gonna happen, and then it kind
49:30
of like went away for like three or four months, and he visits Ohio
49:36
State even after seeing Claire committed, and you're like, oh, well,
49:38
maybe he's gonna stay in twenty six or else. Why would he visit Ohio
49:42
State when they have already got their twenty twenty five quarterback. But it looks
49:45
like after his kind of period of looking around, he's looked at Alabama and
49:50
they've had the coaching change there, and you know, Ohio State's got their
49:52
twenty five guy and may have their twenty six guy very soon. So stay
49:57
tuned for that. It just it it feels like he's just ready with with
50:01
usc kind of being in a really weird spot at quarterback. Maybe this is
50:07
his way of getting out there earlier. And obviously, uh, you know,
50:09
NIL thing is important to You're You're you're starting your clock toward eligibility for
50:14
the NFL Draft year early. You're also getting uh for you know, there's
50:17
no other way to put it. You're getting a paycheck a year earlier.
50:20
I mean, that's all I mean. And the quarterbacks right now of his
50:22
caliber are commanding low seven figures in an NIL money. So you're basically becoming
50:30
a millionaire a year earlier is basically what he's he's doing, all right,
50:37
And speaking of people trying to get a paycheck, we got to talk about
50:39
Jim Harbaugh report out of Dan Wetzel today that Jim Harbrow was looking there's a
50:45
little bit of a disconnect between Jim Harbaugh and Michigan, and one of the
50:49
big ones is Jim Harborough wants immunity from, you know, being punished for
50:53
anything that may have happened in the past related to two existing NCAA investigations.
50:59
Tony Gerderman and I did a about a half an hour on this on the
51:01
Buckeye Weekly podcast, So I will set this one out. I have already
51:05
said my piece. You can find that on the Buckeye Weekly podcast feed.
51:08
Kevin Chris wants to know what's your take on what's being reported that Harbaugh has
51:12
trying to get an exemption put in his contract that they won't fire him if
51:15
they get sanctioned. Why do you need immunity if you're completely innocent? I
51:23
don't I'm not I'm not sure. Didn't Jim Harbaugh announce on the podium and
51:31
I turned it off and discussed before we got to this point, But didn't
51:35
he announce on the podium that they were completely innocent? And you know,
51:40
Nina an Inrodudu stick your head and poo poo or something. I don't know,
51:44
I mean, it was uh. I don't understand why he would need
51:49
all of these things. It really feels to me like Michigan is probably leaking
51:53
some of this stuff just to put the wheels in motion for when Jim Harbaugh
51:59
takes the Chargers job. And well, we just couldn't. We couldn't reason
52:05
with the guy. I mean, you know, I mean it'll be interesting
52:07
how quickly feelings change up there, whether or not it's April twenty twenty four.
52:15
Whenever, the n C two A at least puts some things on paper
52:19
in a notice of allegations. However that may work out. But my biggest
52:24
takeaway is that I don't need I don't need a presidential pardon when I haven't
52:30
done anything wrong. So I don't know why he's trying to get this worked
52:35
into the contract when it's just a cheeseburger. Man, It's just a cheeseburger.
52:40
I was informed on Tuesday or Monday night that it was Cheeseburger's comma et
52:45
cetera, so it could go past cheeseburger's bacon. But we don't have we
52:51
have no specifics, Kevin. It's just impossible to say. It's maybe I
52:54
don't know, Maybe was the ketchup spicy. I don't know. We don't
53:00
know. It's just too soon to say. The other part of that report,
53:04
in addition to Harball wanting community for all of the things that didn't happen,
53:08
was Jim Harbaugh wanting the contract to delay the provision where his buyout for
53:15
an NFL team jumped from one and a half million to four million dollars a
53:17
year, which one did to delay that for a month? Mark. I
53:22
can't think of a single reason why he would want to delay his buyout for
53:27
the NFL going up by what two and a half million dollars for thirty days?
53:31
And can you come up with any reason? Because I know I've been
53:34
repeatedly assured that he wants to stay at Michigan and that's what he really wants,
53:37
and that's the only thing he wants. Can you come up with any
53:39
possible explanation for that? I think for about three years now it's been please
53:45
hire me, NFL, is what I think it's been. I think that's
53:49
been the I think that's been the line there. And he didn't have the
53:53
juice to get an NFL job a couple of years ago. Does he have
53:57
the juice now? Are there better options out there? I don't know.
54:00
Did he pick? Did he pick the wrong year? With with Bill Belichick
54:02
on the market and Mike Rabel on the market and lord knows what's happening with
54:07
Mike Tomlin and Pittsburgh right now and rumors of them even maybe trading Mike Tomlin.
54:12
I mean, it just uh, it sounds like a guy who's tried
54:16
everything to get to the NFL and just hasn't been able to get it to
54:20
work yet. And so I know, the contract extension's been on the desk
54:24
for for months now and it's coming. It's it's right there, you know,
54:30
every everyone's on the same page here. But it just doesn't feel like
54:34
that's really true. Also, there's the thing in the contract too about ward
54:38
manual. Isn't going to be that the one that is like the arbiter of
54:43
his future. If anything happens, it's going to be a three man panel
54:46
of Jay Harbaugh, a booger, and you know some guy down the street.
54:52
I mean, it's it's Connor Stallions. Connor Stallion's right, who will
54:55
never have to pay for a drink up in in in Michigan as long as
54:59
he's pared sharing vacuums. It's crazy. I don't understand all this, but
55:07
I've been told that, you know, the contract's coming. The contract's coming.
55:10
It's coming, and it's going to be fantastic. And with all of
55:14
these, you know, with all of these stipulations and asks and everything in
55:16
there, I just I think I know how this one ends. But yes,
55:22
over the last three years, the only way that Harbaugh was getting to
55:24
the NFL was with a ticket. Well, we have had plenty of people
55:30
in our comments telling us on all these various live shows, Michigan fans telling
55:32
us that we don't know we're talking about and actually, secretly Ryan Day is
55:36
going to end up in prison when all this ends because of Rico or you
55:42
know, secretly, the actual story here is a private investigation firm. I
55:46
will I will invite everyone to read the Dan Wetzel story and compare what we
55:52
have been saying for several months with what a number of very prominent Michigan outlets
55:57
have been saying for very several months. And you tell me which one maybe
56:00
might might lead to some of the requests in the Dan Wetzel article being things
56:06
that Jim Harbaugh is publicly asking for. I mean, just just think about
56:10
it, think about it, review, review the facts at evidence, and
56:14
consider who might be you know, have some sense that's going on here anyway
56:20
that's neither here nor there. We want to thank you guys all for joining
56:22
us for this very special live episode of Buckeye tomorrow morning. If you want
56:25
to see more from Kevin and Tony and Mark and Ross and Devin and Mickey
56:30
and Justin and me. Well, you can find us all at Buckey Huddle
56:34
dot com. We are all covering the team, covering recruiting, covering exus
56:37
and nos, making you a smarter football fan. Lots of transfer portal news,
56:40
some coaching staff news potentially coming soon, much much more, we'll say,
56:45
very very very active community. Boy, there's been a lot to talk
56:46
about on the huddle Board presented by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse. We would love to
56:51
see there bucke Huddle dot com. And of course there's undoubtedly going to be
56:53
more news coming soon on the Buckeye football program and who knows, maybe the
56:58
Buckeye basketball program or whatever else. You can find that all a YouTube dot
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com slash Buckey Huddle whenever it happens. We generally are pretty good about getting
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on the air with for you pretty quick to break down what we know,
57:07
what we've heard, what we've learned, and much much more. So.
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Make sure you subscribe there, and yes, hit that thumbs up, as
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com slash Buckeye Huddle. That will do it for today. Thank you guys
57:24
all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow